


Preliminaries

by scy



Category: The Vampire Diaries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-24
Updated: 2010-04-24
Packaged: 2017-10-09 03:04:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/82338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scy/pseuds/scy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alaric didn't mean to hang out with Damon</p>
            </blockquote>





	Preliminaries

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes: **seperis** encouraged this, read along, and prodded when necessary.

It started when they were over at the Gilberts' having a meal together as if they were a functional semi-family unit. That meant Jenna, Jeremy, Elena, Alaric, and both Salvatore brothers. Alaric couldn't figure out who had invited Damon, but Elena welcomed him inside with a hand on his arm, and he kissed her cheek breezily as he went by.

"Is he always like that?" Alaric asked, and Elena sighed.

"It's when he's not being Damon-ish that I start to worry."

The spring had been full of enough excitement and upheaval that frankly, Alaric was relieved that all Damon seemed to be doing lately was showing up with a several bottles of red wine. He opened one with an overly theatrical flourish, and then began pouring everyone a glass, doing some little hand wave that had Stefan smiling despite himself.

"What?" Elena asked, and Stefan shook his head.

"Just something Damon used to do to annoy our father."

"Some things should be a production," Damon said.

"Not everything," Stefan said, but he didn't sound upset, and when Damon sniffed disdainfully at him, Stefan only rolled his eyes and took Elena's hand.

After dinner, Jenna shooed Jeremy upstairs, and gave them all a fond look. Alaric followed her into the kitchen.

"It's good to see them relaxing," Jenna said.

"Yeah, this year has been pretty intense," Alaric said. That was an understatement, he had fresh scars from the last couple of weeks, and Elena wasn't ever far from Stefan's side these days.

"You can say that again." Jenna wasn't staring, but Alaric had noticed her looking at him, the same way he was sure she'd caught him looking. There was a spark between them, and it hadn't gone anywhere yet, but he was wondering if he was able to give it a chance now. They talked awhile longer, and then there was the sound of people going up the stairs. Alaric glanced at Jenna, and she smiled.

"Elena isn't trying to be stealthy, but she and Stefan know the rules."

"You're awfully comfortable with all of this," Alaric said. "I don't know if I'd be so laid back with my niece." He paused. "No, I know I'd be a complete pain, and wouldn't even want her to be dating until after college, maybe."

Jenna let out a giggle. "See, that's what encourages rebellion. This way we trust each other, and I don't have to worry about Stefan sneaking in or out of a window in the middle of the night."

"Yeah, good point." Alaric thought Stefan probably did all of that anyway, but that he might be more respectful of Jenna's rules than other people.

"Damon is still here," Jenna said.

"Is that a problem?" He didn't know what Damon had gotten up to the other times he'd been a guest, but it still made Alaric uneasy to think of Damon being able to come in and out of the house whenever he wanted.

"No, but I think that's your cue."

Alaric frowned. "What's that?"

"Did he give you a ride here?"

"No, I walked."

"Oh, well maybe he wants to give you a ride home."

"I don't think so," Alaric said and laughed, but stopped when Jenna didn't join in. "You're not serious."

"I've got some experience with watching people watch each other, and I've seen him looking at you all night."

"We've got an ongoing argument, he's just thinking of the way he's going to get the better of me," Alaric said. It was the only thing he could think of to describe the way he and Damon were tolerating one another. Damon didn't do more than needle him on what seemed to be general principle, and Alaric still kept vervain in his pocket, but he was wearing the ring Isobel had given him, and knew that Damon couldn't actually kill him so long as he was wearing it. Even so, he couldn't think of a reason for Damon to hang around and wait for him, but he checked the living room anyway.

Damon was sipping his wine slowly, and looked at Alaric and then away. He put his glass down and rose. "I'll be outside."

Alaric stared at him and couldn't make out what he wanted, and Damon brushed against him as he pulled his jacket on and nodded at Jenna. "It was lovely to see you again, Jenna."

"You too, Damon," Jenna said, and winked at Damon, and when he returned the gesture, Alaric blinked.

"I don't know that I want to know what that was about."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Jenna said, and walked Alaric to the door. When he was on the doorstep, he stood there for a moment, and then he headed for Damon's car, and leaned on the door and stared at Damon trough the open window.

"What are you doing?"

"Waiting," Damon said.

"Are you bored? Do you need to find somebody to harass and I'm your default when Stefan is busy?"

"There aren't that many people worth my time."

"Let me assure you that I am too boring to amuse you for long," Alaric said. "But if you keep on trying to make me do tricks for you, I'd be happy to go back to our trying to take a shot at you."

"Warning me of your plans doesn't seem too smart."

"I'm sure you're not surprised to know that I still have a problem with you."

"No, I take that as a given, there just isn't much point," Damon said. "Are you going to walk home?"

"Yes I am."

"All right." Damon nodded at him and drove off, and Alaric walked home, wondering what Damon was planning.

The summer break was fast approaching, and Alaric was writing final exams and dealing with students who wanted to be out of school and all the while, he tried to keep track of the people about who he had become concerned. He and Elena talked after class at least once a week, and Alaric went out of his way to see how Jeremy was doing. Although he'd asked Jenna out again, she had declined, and given him a smile, but told Alaric that it wasn't the right time because of a lot of things. Alaric was left thinking that life had been much simpler when he had no idea that vampires were real and even more so when he still hadn't met one. He had gotten accustomed to the thought that nothing was going to be the same ever again, even if he found Isobel, he knew that it wouldn't heal what had changed between them. Still, he wanted the chance to ask why the two of them and what they'd had hadn't been enough for her.

Often he found himself at the Grill, and with increasing regularity, Damon showed up there as well, and they drifted away from the bar and to a booth without ever discussing the decision. If they had, there would have been an argument, and that wasn't always the way they spent their evenings, just most of them.

"Good crowd tonight," Damon said as they stared at the families hurrying in and out of the Grill.

"Any special reason you're paying attention?"

"I've got an appetite," Damon said. "Habit."

"You don't ever feel bad about what you do?" Alaric asked.

"I have to eat," Damon said. "Besides, I was used to seeing dead men long before I was ripping out people's throats."

"You were in the war?" Alaric asked.

Damon had taken a sip of water, and he put the glass down and signaled to Matt Donovan. "Whiskey." When the glass was set on the table, he drank it down and nodded at Alaric. "I was in a war, yes."

"I read the Gilbert journal," Alaric said, his voice low.

"Good for you, so have I."

"How accurate is it?"

"In what sense?" Damon asked, leaning closer. "Did you want to hear a first hand account, is that what you're after?"

"You may not care, but I'm a History teacher, and that's what I'm interested in."

"It doesn't have anything to do with the town's special history?" Damon asked, glancing around exaggeratedly, as if somebody might be listening on their conversation. "Fine, ask away."

"When did you join up?"

"In 1863."

"Did you see any action?"

"I saw some," Damon said.

"Then you came back to Virginia the next year?" Alaric was basing his conclusion on what he'd gleaned from the journal he'd read as well as the town archives.

"Yeah."

"Then there was the fire shortly after."

"Yeah, but it had been building for months before they mobbed," Damon said, and sneered. "We knew it was coming."

Since vampires were much stronger than humans and Alaric had seen more evidence of it than he wanted to. "Why didn't you stop them?"

Damon laughed bitterly, and Alaric looked around uneasily.

"Even though we knew, some of us weren't as worried."

"Like-" Alaric nodded at Damon and he shook his head.

"I thought we should have left, so did others, but I wasn't the one making the decisions, and we stayed."

"Wouldn't your family have missed you?"

"Stefan might have, not our father," Damon said. "He wasn't happy that I made it home alive instead of dying doing something useful." Damon's voice was bitter, and Alaric noted the way his fingers tightened on the glass and then forcibly relaxed.

"Did he know what was going on?"

"My father was on the original Founders' Council," Damon said. "He only brought us in on it when he thought we might be useful."

"He wanted to protect you."

"Right, he thought that we were going be seduced by the forces of evil." Damon laughed. "He caught on to that a little late."

"When all of them were walled up," Alaric began, and motioned at their surroundings to show that he wasn't being any more insensitive than usual, "you and Stefan weren't with them."

"No, we were still human," Damon said. "You have to die before you can take that final step."

"How did you-"

"It's not something to be discussed in public or with somebody who's thinking of the ways to shove a piece of wood into me the minute my back is turned," Damon said.

"Not in public," Alaric said with mock offense. "That would be hard to explain."

"I'm so relieved."

"All right, never mind that, I have another question."

"Of course," Damon said. "What was the subject of your thesis?"

"The Civil War was my area of specialty," Alaric said. "I've gotten a look at hundreds of first hand accounts, but it's not as if you can get a sense of it from a book."

"I've read some that did a decent job," Damon said.

"You read?"

"If need be."

"A book doesn't have the same power."

"No, it doesn't," Damon said, and was nearly done with his second whiskey.

"Are you drinking because of the subject matter or is it some vampire thing?"

"It helps dull the cravings."

"Always?"

"For awhile."

"You're not only killers, you're drunks too."

"Some of us," Damon said, and he was staring past Alaric's shoulder to where Stefan and Elena were playing pool. There was a glass resting on the edge of a table nearby, and Alaric guessed that it belonged to the other Salvatore.

"Is he all right?"

"He's fine," Damon said.

"Sure."

"What about you? Is this too much?" Alaric wasn't being compassionate, he wouldn't go that far, but he didn't feel like fighting, he was comfortable, and there were witnesses around, and even if he asked Damon a question he didn't like, violence was unlikely.

"I'll manage, go on, you're dying to write a paper, I can tell."

"I don't, but what else are we going to do tonight?" Alaric asked.

"You have students, don't they need your attention?"

"I'm nearly done with their final." Alaric pulled out the draft he'd handwritten between breakfast and lunch and passed it to Damon, who glanced at him and then began reading it.

It was a comprehensive exam, and challenging, but Alaric didn't think that it would be something that gave any of the students nightmares, provided that they had studied as he'd told them they needed to.

"Just so you know, my opinion is based on what I've read of Stefan's homework, whenever he goes back to school, and my own bygone schooling," Damon said as he passed the exam back to Alaric. "Kids are incredibly coddled these days."

Alaric raised an eyebrow.

"That being said, at least this isn't the type of test where the children can close their eyes and pick the right answer."

"Was that a compliment? In an incredibly messed up way?" Alaric asked.

"If you say so." Damon smiled. "It might be," Damon said, and Alaric thought that he had been missing a whole lot of important cues.

Abruptly uncomfortable, Alaric cleared his throat. "Let's talk about something else."

"Like what?"

"For instance, the vampires laying in wait to kill everyone in town?"

"There are barely any vampires in Mystic Falls," Damon said.

"You're not planning on killing everybody, or is it just the people who piss you off?"

"If I did that, I'd never have time to do anything else."

"Your self control is admirable," Alaric said.

"Few people truly appreciate it."

"Their loss." Alaric sighed. "Come on, you don't have anyone you're going to go after?"

"Other than Uncle John Gilbert?"

"Let me know, I might want to help with that one," Alaric said.

They went on that way more often than not, with Damon showing up in Alaric's classroom one night and teasing him about his lack of a social life and needling him until they ended up in the parlor at the Salvatore boarding house. It wasn't the best place to find oneself when drunk and in the company of a vampire, but Alaric had been here before and he'd walked away. The part that surprised him was that he thought Damon was trying to make this go somewhere.

Alaric hadn't dated since Isobel died, he hadn't even so much as thought about whether or not it would be cheating, because he was still in love with her. It had been years since he came home to find her being bitten by Damon, and he had that moment imprinted on the inside of his eyelids every time he went to sleep. But, time had passed, and he started to notice people looking his way again. He didn't think he was ready to do something about it, but by the time he came to Mystic Falls, he wasn't so raw that he couldn't flirt with Jenna when she showed interest. It was like learning what to say to a woman for the first time all over again, only he remembered how this had gone the first time, and he was afraid of it happening a second time. But with Damon, he knew there was no chance of forgetting what had brought him to this point, he just had to make it clear.

Somehow they had ended up next to each other on the couch, and Alaric had slumped over, pleasantly drunk and not interested in moving anywhere when he felt Damon move closer. He batted at him, but Damon just laughed, and waited until he settled again and brushed his fingers against Alaric's shoulder, and then up higher.

Moments later, Damon was mouthing along Alaric's neck, which couldn't go anywhere good, and Alaric dug his hand into Damon's hair and yanked his head back. Damon's eyes were half lidded, and he looked lazy and amused by Alaric's move.

"Yes?"

"If you bite me I will stab you with a pencil if I have to, and this time I won't miss."

"Got it," Damon said and rolled his back into Alaric's grip. His own neck was exposed, and Alaric couldn't tell if he was just enjoying Alaric pulling his hair or making a point. He twisted out just long enough to straddle Alaric's lap, and that was unexpected.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting comfortable," Damon said and rolled his hips against Alaric's.

It was incredibly distracting, because Damon was hard, and the constant pressure and just the feeling of somebody else being so close was doing the same to Alaric. He tried to focus on other things, though, like the fact that it was a vampire, and a guy who was sitting on top of him. "Why?"

"You're tense."

"That comes from having a vampire hitting on me."

"You've been dealing with it well up until now," Damon said.

"Wait, when did you start flirting with me?"

"About the time you punched me in the head."

Alaric gaped at him. He was well on his way to being drunk, and that was too much to try and figure out at the moment. "Violence encourages you to try and continue a relationship?"

Damon shrugged. "Sometimes."

"What kind of people have you been learning this from?"

"Family, friends," Damon shrugged. "Why?"

"I think you need therapy."

Damon had gotten Alaric's pants open, and Alaric panted when Damon's hand slid inside. "I'm not the one letting a vampire give me a hand job," Damon said, and Alaric threw his head back and groaned.

"Point."

"Don't worry, it won't help anything, just sit back and enjoy it."

"That's what, your policy for life?" Alaric groaned.

"Pretty much." Damon leaned in and licked Alaric's mouth, and when he gasped, kissed him. "Come on, who's it going to hurt if you relax a little?"

"With you?"

"I'm the only one here."

"Well, me for a start, and then whoever you're going to kill later when you're bored again."

"I haven't killed anyone for weeks," Damon said and frowned. "Not in any fun sense anyhow."

"You have standards for how you kill people?"

"Yeah," Damon said, as if it should have been obvious and was completely understandable, instead of more than a little psychopathic of him to say as much.

"What am I saying, I shouldn't even be surprised," Alaric said.

"It's rather charming that you are," Damon said. "Quaint." He twisted his grip on Alaric's cock, and Alaric's outraged response was swallowed by a groan.

"You're not winning me over."

Damon licked Alaric's collar bone and then continued down his stomach and let his mouth rest on Alaric's hip and then sucked a bruise into the skin there. "How about now?"

"No, but you're a goddamn tease."

"That's a surprise?" Damon laughed, but when Alaric grabbed at him, trying to direct him without knowing where he wanted him to move first, Damon sighed and the sound was gentler. "Calm down, it's going to be fine, just let me show you."

Damon's smile was sweet, and even though Alaric knew it was a front, he let himself believe it for a second and then glared at him. "Well, are you all talk or what?"

"You're funny," Damon said, and out of self defense, that's what it was, Alaric told himself, he leaned in and sank his teeth into Damon's neck. He wanted him to do something, even if he wasn't sure what he wanted, and he certainly got a reaction.

Damon let out a rumble that Alaric knew was a warning but he didn't back off, and when he opened his eyes again, he was flat on his back and Damon was still on top of him and had a wide grin on his face. As Damon's thumb ran over Alaric's lower lip, and smiled. "If that's how you want it, I can do that."

"What?"

"Yeah." Damon rolled his hips against Alaric, and his jeans were rough, but somehow it was okay, and Alaric had thrown his head back, even though it was really stupid to tempt a vampire, but apparently that was what he had decided to do tonight, and he might as well go all in. "That's it, just like that," Damon said, and his hand went back down to Alaric's cock, for which he was really grateful. He planted his feet and lifted his hips upwards, and Damon went with it, laughing and finally sliding down Alaric's body.

"Is this better?" He was breathing on Alaric's cock like he was waiting for an answer, and why he was waiting now, Alaric had no idea.

"Do you want me to beg?"

"That would be nice, but I bet you'd regret this in the morning."

"I regret it now," Alaric said. "I just don't care yet."

"All right." Damon licked Alaric's cock, and that was the end of coherent speech and thought. Everything was sensation, and it had been way too long since he'd had sex, otherwise he would have better defenses against this, the way that Damon made noise and knew the right speed and angle and then completely changed things up just when Alaric was getting close. When he was reduced to begging Damon, mostly with his hips and the way his hands went to try and direct Damon's movements, that seemed to be enough, and Damon slid his mouth over Alaric's cock one more time and then pulled back, stroking him with his free hand.

"Come on, that's it," Damon said, and Alaric let go.

When he opened his eyes, Damon was lying next to him, resting his head on one hand while the other was on the crotch of his jeans. He was staring at Alaric and smiled when he saw him regain his senses. "Hello, there."

"Oh my god," Alaric said.

"Yes?"

"Not you, I can't believe I did that."

"About a year or two past when you should have," Damon said. "Seriously, how is denying yourself anything a good idea in the long run?" You and Stefan need to compare notes, because it hasn't worked out well for either of you."

"As opposed to your philosophy?" Alaric asked.

"My way works."

Alaric put a hand over his eyes. "I'm still drunk, this is a hallucination." He peeked at Damon, who smiled and waved.

"Still here, and so are you."

"Damn."

Damon laughed, and Alaric groaned again. "If you're not going to go away, shut up or I will make you be quiet." He was surprised when Damon tilted his head to one side and looked intrigued, then realized what he was thinking. "You really do like it when people knock you around."

"It depends on the setting," Damon said. "You remember what happened the last time you tried it."

"Yeah, but I just, you know, pulled your hair and stuff."

"If that's the roughest you've ever been in bed, then my sympathies," Damon said.

"Sex doesn't have to hurt to be good," Alaric said, and Damon rolled onto his back, a couple inches away from Alaric, but still close enough to reach if he wanted.

"I never said it did."

"But you-"

Damon pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do I have to explain kink to you?"

Alaric's face flushed. "No, please don't."

"Are you sure?"

"I really am."

"So what's the problem?"

"Can't I just not want to talk about it?"

"Not when I can tell it's more than that."

Alaric's head was buzzing, and he wasn't sure he could make sense of much of anything at present, and it was massively unfair that Damon was certain he could. "Yeah?"

"You don't like me, but you do like the idea of making me pay for what I did to Isobel."

That wasn't something Alaric wanted to talk about, not when he could still remember the way Damon's hands had felt on him. "Let it go, Damon."

"Not in my nature."

"Then get a better one."

"Too late for that," Damon said.

"I mean it, this isn't a good time to stir this up."

"Fine, when are you going to let it out?"

"I tried that once, I ended up dead," Alaric said.

"You got better."

"I remember, and I was stiff for a whole day afterward."

"Try getting shot, that's really a pain."

"Damon-"

Damon rolled his eyes and then sat up, still looking like he'd gotten lost on his way to a party and not spent most of the evening drinking with Alaric. "Fine, you want to stew over this and have a heart attack because you didn't learn how to unwind, that's your prerogative."

"So you're just offering to give me an outlet because you're concerned about my health?"

"No, I think it would be fun," Damon said.

Alaric reached out and grabbed Damon's collar and yanked him back onto his elbows and leaned in. "I know what you're trying to do, and I don't want to be part of your little game. I'm not going to hurt you because you want me to, I'll hurt you because of what you did."

"Yeah, I'm a horrible person, you don't know why we hang out together, we could go through this all night." Damon ran a hand up Alaric's chest and smiled. "Or you could relax." He dug his fingers into Alaric's shoulder, and got shoved away.

"Stop it."

When Alaric looked to his left, Damon had moved in that inhumanly fast way, and was draped over the couch, smirking and obviously daring Alaric to react somehow. "Admit it, you've wondered why she went looking for me. Was it because you did something wrong, or was it just that she wanted more?"

"Stop," Alaric said, and Damon ran a hand down his chest and rested it on his belt buckle.

"Too hard to hear?"

They'd been getting along almost too well, and it should have been a relief that Damon was pushing the limits of Alaric's patience, but he wasn't relieved to be so suddenly angry. But Alaric was a teacher and he recognized the technique Damon was using.

"Is this so I'll get hooked?" Alaric asked.

"There are worse things."

"Like still loving my wife?"

"Love is unavoidable, you're used to it, and don't know how to stop," Damon said. "Just don't go looking for it if you're not sure what you'll be getting."

"You're saying you do? Like with Katherine?"

"I knew what she was," Damon said. "We didn't have those kind of secrets, and I always knew what I wanted."

There were things that Alaric didn't want to know, and Damon clearly didn't have the same problem. If he'd know that Isobel was even more obsessed than she let on, Alaric would have tried to get her help. Damon had wanted to be included and he'd taken Isobel along with him when she asked.

"She never said anything to me."

"That's because your answer wasn't going to change."

"Then what do you expect?"

"You need to see her for what she is," Damon said.

"This lecture would be more meaningful if you weren't still chasing Katherine."

"I've got some experience in this area."

"Fine." Alaric pulled himself up into a sitting position and rested his arms on knees as he stared at Damon. "Tell me, what would you suggest, old timer?"

"Take what you want," Damon said.

"That's it? It's how you've gotten by for the last hundred or so years?"

"It's simple, I grant you, but I've gotten good results."

"Which is why you're back in Mystic Falls, getting drunk with a high school teacher who wants to kill vampires," Alaric said. There were several obvious flaws in Damon's logic, including the fact that he thought he had any to speak of, but Alaric couldn't tell if Damon knew or cared.

"You followed me home," Damon said.

Alaric pressed a hand to his forehead. "Don't remind me. Do you have any aspirin, or, no, vampires probably don't even get headaches."

"We keep it around though," Damon said and slid off the couch. "Don't move, I don't want to haul you off the floor."

The couch was as good a place as any to sit down, and Alaric stayed there, eyes closed until Damon nudged him.

"Here." Damon was holding out a mug of coffee, and in his other hand were several white tablets. "They're for your headache. Trust me, if I wanted you dead, I'd have more fun with it."

"Somehow that's almost comforting," Alaric said and took both the mug and the pills. Even just swallowing him made him think he was feeling better, and he didn't object when Damon sat down next to him with his own mug in hand. Not too long after that, he really was feeling better, and yawned. "If I fall asleep, are you going to behave yourself?"

"Anything's possible," Damon said, and grinned.

"In other words, I'm taking my chances."

As Damon put his feet up on the table, he gave every sign of settling in, and Alaric shook his head. "Fine, just don't kill me while I'm asleep, that really annoys me."

"I'll think of something that won't," Damon said.

"You do that," Alaric said, and closed his eyes.


End file.
